Some interesting blog posts....
While I have been searching for blog posts of first year teachers.. I have been unlucky, finding nothing that made me want to jump up with excitement. In my opinion, most of my ELED classmates have more developed and insightful blogs than many I have seen while searching online.
I did however run across some teaching blogs that delivered lesssons to the reader about life and how to deal with daily classroom/student mishaps. Such as: http://teachingprofessor.blogspot.com/. In this blog, the author (a retired professor and educator for 26 years) has written many books on teaching and delivers us a look into how to deal with troubled students. I have seen many blogs discussing student "wonderfulness" which we can all relate to, but to see the other, comical side of problem students is a new take on the traditional blog. The author tells the reader how to deal with some of these issues, or witty comments pair with the behavior.
I also found http://teacherlingo.com/. This website/blog, offers lessons, and a community of many teachers coming together with many ideas and topics. Here anyone can search by elementary, college, ELL, and many other blog categories to search for more specific topics. I like this idea of many different blogs-- a forum of blogs, comming together.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Blog Post #4- Biggest Surprise Thus Far
My biggest surprise about being in the classroom and working with students is how many individual students need one-one-one time. My classroom has students ranging in cognitive abilities; some students excel at math, others excel at reading and writing, and some students are having difficulties all around. This reminds me of my own lessons that I taught. I often felt that by continuing with the unit, I was leaving others behind; some students were absent for a previous lesson, some students were pulled out to see a reading specialist, and others didn’t understand the lesson 100%, which was my objective.
The G.L.A.D strategy says teach to the highest capable students, catch up the lower level students later. Which leaves me questioning…when do I catch these students up when the rest of the class, or at least the highest capable that are moving on with me and my lessons? Do I catch them up during future lessons, thus resulting in a prolonged game of catch up, or do I catch these students up in the form of extra homework… but is that really fair to send kids home with “extra” homework just because I didn’t give them the proper scaffolding to meet their need initially? I am left perplexed and unsure. This surprise has lead me to dig deeper to discover the answer. It is assumed by most teachers that these students will “eventually catch up”, but I ask when? Is this another way to push the issue under the rug? I am hoping that these next two quarters will help me answer this question and help me develop new ideas to solve this never ending cycle.
The G.L.A.D strategy says teach to the highest capable students, catch up the lower level students later. Which leaves me questioning…when do I catch these students up when the rest of the class, or at least the highest capable that are moving on with me and my lessons? Do I catch them up during future lessons, thus resulting in a prolonged game of catch up, or do I catch these students up in the form of extra homework… but is that really fair to send kids home with “extra” homework just because I didn’t give them the proper scaffolding to meet their need initially? I am left perplexed and unsure. This surprise has lead me to dig deeper to discover the answer. It is assumed by most teachers that these students will “eventually catch up”, but I ask when? Is this another way to push the issue under the rug? I am hoping that these next two quarters will help me answer this question and help me develop new ideas to solve this never ending cycle.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Blog Post 3
Since I have not yet taught any of my unit, or other lessons thus far, for the purpose of this blog post, I have looked over my lesson plan, thought about my group of students outcomes, and will predict what will happen. I have lead other minilessons, so I know how my group of students responds to me and my teaching style. I will focus this blog on my upcoming unit lesson 1, my read aloud. I will be reading Pilgrims of The Plymouth.
(1) Learning target: list the short term learning target/objective of the lesson, along with a short description of the learning experiences section of your lesson plan.
Once the lesson is complete, I want the students to understand what the pilgrim children did growing up and how their lives were different and the same as the second grader’s current lives. Hopefully, this will be the start to some great brainstorming and help the students in identifying some major comparisons and contrasts so they have a good start on their upcoming writing unit. I want the students to be able to relate back to the story and recall specific tasks and activities that the children did which can then be recorded for future use. I hope that the students can imagine themselves in the story to try and relate to the pilgrim children to better understand how their lives are different or the same and how history has changed this.
(2) Evidence: describe what students did or said to let you know whether you were successful in meeting this goal (what evidence led you to this conclusion?)
My hope are that by the end of this lesson and throughout the lesson, the students will be able to answer prompted questions and complete the collumn chart comparing Activities children today do and activities pilgrim children did in the 1600's.
3) Reteach: describe how you could/will reteach the lesson for students who may need extra support beyond what you offered in the lesson.
I dont expect children to need any extra support for this lesson. If however, extra support is needed and I have to reteach the lesson to students who did not get the main ideas, this can be done in small group form. I can take a small group and work with them, highlighting the important parts of the story and offering more scaffolding to help the students grasp the idea.
4) Extend: describe how you could/will extend the lesson for students who successfully met your expectations (i.e., how will you help students build on what they've already mastered?).
I have many students in my class who would fit this category of higher achievers. I plan on extending this lesson for the entire class, as this is the beginning of my unit. Since all students are at different learning levels, I have worked with my teacher in creating three learning groups. These groups are based on reading and writing abilities. The higher group will be working with eachother one-on-one more and will require less scaffolding from Mrs. Sweeny or myself. The other two groups will be provided more detailed examples in hopes that they will be able to move along in the unit. The next lesson will require making Venn diagrams. The idea of Venn diagram can easily be done with my entire class of students, but some students may need more help than others. Again, the same grouping will be done and this can provide for any extra help, details, examples, and partner work.
(1) Learning target: list the short term learning target/objective of the lesson, along with a short description of the learning experiences section of your lesson plan.
Once the lesson is complete, I want the students to understand what the pilgrim children did growing up and how their lives were different and the same as the second grader’s current lives. Hopefully, this will be the start to some great brainstorming and help the students in identifying some major comparisons and contrasts so they have a good start on their upcoming writing unit. I want the students to be able to relate back to the story and recall specific tasks and activities that the children did which can then be recorded for future use. I hope that the students can imagine themselves in the story to try and relate to the pilgrim children to better understand how their lives are different or the same and how history has changed this.
(2) Evidence: describe what students did or said to let you know whether you were successful in meeting this goal (what evidence led you to this conclusion?)
My hope are that by the end of this lesson and throughout the lesson, the students will be able to answer prompted questions and complete the collumn chart comparing Activities children today do and activities pilgrim children did in the 1600's.
3) Reteach: describe how you could/will reteach the lesson for students who may need extra support beyond what you offered in the lesson.
I dont expect children to need any extra support for this lesson. If however, extra support is needed and I have to reteach the lesson to students who did not get the main ideas, this can be done in small group form. I can take a small group and work with them, highlighting the important parts of the story and offering more scaffolding to help the students grasp the idea.
4) Extend: describe how you could/will extend the lesson for students who successfully met your expectations (i.e., how will you help students build on what they've already mastered?).
I have many students in my class who would fit this category of higher achievers. I plan on extending this lesson for the entire class, as this is the beginning of my unit. Since all students are at different learning levels, I have worked with my teacher in creating three learning groups. These groups are based on reading and writing abilities. The higher group will be working with eachother one-on-one more and will require less scaffolding from Mrs. Sweeny or myself. The other two groups will be provided more detailed examples in hopes that they will be able to move along in the unit. The next lesson will require making Venn diagrams. The idea of Venn diagram can easily be done with my entire class of students, but some students may need more help than others. Again, the same grouping will be done and this can provide for any extra help, details, examples, and partner work.
RON CLARK THE MOVIE--- VIEWING PARTY
I was curious to see if anyone wanted to have a Ron Clark the movie Viewing party. I own the movie, and thought that it may be interesting to view it as a class, or as a group. This story is very moving and watching it with others who could share the compassion and interest would really enhance the overall message of the movie. Let me know if you are interested! We can set something up.
Friday, October 24, 2008
I Love These Rules
AMAZINGIf you havn't heard of Ron Clark, go and buy this book, The Essential 55. I ran across it over the summer. His rules speak of love, respect, and discipline in the classroom. These are rules that can take place as parents, caregivers, and even student-teachers. There is also a movie about his incredible, warm-hearted teaching experience called the Ron Clark Story. I bought the movie as well. It's a tear jerker, but very good....it really makes a person re-evaluate their life.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
My Journey Thus Far...
I have been in the 2nd grade classroom for 2 months now. The time seems to have flown by. In the beginning I was with my students everyday, now, I am only there two days a week. I miss the students and while my time in the beginning was beneficial for so many reasons, I am so sad because I feel that I just got pulled out of the classroom right at the moment when I was really starting to fit in and feel comfortable. I try and cherish the little time I have with the students, learning who they are, who they are becomming, and how they are growing and molding into classroom routines and procedures. I feel like I am missing it all. Now, when I go into the classroom, they still recognize me as the teacher, and will at most times, come to me for questions... but, I feel that my connection with the students isnt the same. When I am in the classroom, I feel comfortable and in charge. My teacher constantly praises my efforts and gives me compliments and words of wisdome throughout the morning. I have truly been blessed with a warm, kind-hearted CT, who understands where I come from and shares a lot of the same values and beliefs as I do. I hope that my full-time internship teacher is just as pleasant to be around. I will be sad to leave Mrs. Sweeny and the students, this I did not prepare myself for.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Blog #1- Changing classroom convictions
I had always thought that in order to teach, you had to have specific lesson plans written out with a step-by-step process that must be followed. I had always assumed that every teacher has lesson plans that he or she goes over every time they present a lesson. I had these strong convictions for myself, that I too must always have these type of lesson plans written out for each and every lesson, never teaching in the moment. Since I have begun my student teaching this past month or so, my certainty in this action has subsided a bit. My teacher has unit topics and worksheets that she uses to teach from. She partakes in many read alouds that connect to the writers workshop activity, and in many cases, she uses no lesson plans, but rather ideas of how she plans for it to go.. and in most cases, it goes as planned. When I am quickly presented with mini-lessons that I have to teach to the second graders, I too have begun teaching in the moment. Partly due to the lack of planning time available for me, but also due to my teachers convidence in me to think on feet and act in the moment. Frankly, I love it. I find it cumbersome to know that I can look outside of the box with teaching my lessons and not teach to every phrase that I had written down in my lesson plans, which, until now, is all I have been doing, it is all that I have been taught to do. I believe this is a sign of personal growth because it has taught me that teaching can be more fun, I can relax and still get the material to the students in an acceptable learning environment, that I can teach on a whim... I can add and delete as I teach. I know there are times for full written lesson plans and times for partially written lesson plans. Other times call for flexibility and am confident that I can be more flexible with my future students and let go of some of my old convictions.
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